ATP World Tour No. 2 Roger Federer’s campaign to win a third Sony Ericsson Open title gathered pace on Sunday as he recorded his 11th straight victory over Nicolas Kiefer 6-4, 6-1 to reach the fourth round of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Miami.
The Swiss second seed did not face a single break point in the 70-minute match and converted four of six break point opportunities to improve to a 12-3 match record against the 29th-ranked German.
The 27-year-old Federer is bidding for his 15th ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title, and his third in Miami after previously triumphing in 2005 (d. Nadal in five sets) and 2006 (d. Ljubicic in three tie-breaks). Federer, who lost in the quarter-finals to Andy Roddick last year, improved to a 32-8 tournament record.
Federer is this week looking to win his first tour-level title since winning in Basel last October. The right-hander has a 15-3 match record on the season, highlighted by reaching the Australian Open final – where, in a gripping five set final, Rafael Nadal denied him the chance to equal Pete Sampras’ all-time record of 14 Slam titles. He has also reached semi-finals at Doha and last week at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells, losing to Andy Murray on both occasions.
Federer next will face American Taylor Dent, who ousted Spanish No. 15 seed Tommy Robredo 7-5, 6-3 to take a giant leap on the comeback trail.
Dent qualified into the main draw before defeating qualifier Ricardo Mello and No. 19 seed Nicolas Almagro to reach the third round. The 27-year-old California native reached the quarter-finals (l. to Agassi) on his last appearance at the Sony Ericsson Open in 2005. However, in recent years Dent has struggled with a back injury that required two surgeries and him to wear a cast for close to a year in 2007. Consequently, he has seen his South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking plummet to No. 467 from a career-high No. 21 (August 8, 2005).
“I feel great,” said Dent. “For me, it's really a vindication for not only myself, but my supporting staff. For someone to come from where I've been, it would be almost impossible without the handful of people who've really been supporting me my whole way.
“At the end of the day, it all comes down to execution (against Federer). It doesn't matter if you think that Federer has a weak whatever. If you can't execute and exploit that, it doesn't really matter. So it all comes back to the same thing. You've just got to get out there, play your game, execute, and on a day to day basis, things change. So you may have to adjust.”
“It's great to see him back playing,” said Federer of Dent. “He was always a dangerous player on tour because he was aggressive, offensive and kind of making the match decide on a couple of passing shots here and there. It's going to be interesting for me to see how he plays. I actually never played him, so I can't compare before and after injury. I'm looking forward to a good match.”
Third-seeded Serbian Novak Djokovic maintained his smooth progress with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over France’s No. 31 seed Paul-Henri Mathieu. Djokovic saved all three break points he faced, while converting four of seven break point opportunities on Mathieu’s to wrap up victory in 76 minutes on Grandstand.
The 21-year-old Djokovic is bidding for his second Sony Ericsson Open title after triumphing in 2007 with victory over Guillermo Canas. Last season he won two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events at Indian Wells (d. Fish) and Rome (d. Wawrinka).
The Belgrade native, who is just 570 South African Airways 2009 ATP Ranking points ahead of fourth-placed Andy Murray, has compiled a 19-7 match record this season. He captured his 12th tour-level title at Dubai (d. Ferrer) last month and was a semifinalist at Sydney (l. to Nieminen) and Marseille (l. to Tsonga).(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_2861.ASP)
